


Mementos

by thesometimeswarrior



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Episode: s01e45 Rose's Scabbard, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Personal Growth, Post-Steven Universe: Diamond Days
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 08:22:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21317092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: “So, um….” Connie produces what’s left of the sword from her bag—extends it to Pearl, but pointedly looks down as she does to avoid seeing the Gem’s reaction. “Steven said that I could decide what to do with this. And I thought that, after…you know, everything, you should have it.”Connie, Pearl, and Steven contemplate Rose's sword.
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran & Pearl, Connie Maheswaran & Steven Universe, Pearl & Rose Quartz (Steven Universe), Pearl/Rose Quartz (Steven Universe)
Comments: 26
Kudos: 139





	Mementos

**Author's Note:**

> That shot in the movie, where the remains of Rose's Sword are on the shelf, really got me thinking about how it got there. This is my answer to that.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

The days after they return from Homeworld are such a flurry of excitement and busyness, that, even though Connie comes up to Beach City as often as she’s able to to help, and sees Steven several times in the interim, it’s not until a few weeks after that she broaches the subject with him. 

When she finally does, they’re lounging on the hand on the top of the Temple—which she now knows to be some version of Obsidian’s hand. (The _real_ Obsidian—well, the real _new_ Obsidian anyway—had caught her in their hand, too, on Homeworld. Their _real_ hand. And it had almost certainly saved her life.)

(But in a way, this giant statue of the old, Rose-Quartz-containing Obsidian had saved her life too. Or at least changed it. If they hadn’t been having a picnic _here_, on her hand, those seagulls never would have showed up, and Steven might never have suggested that she start sword-lessons with Pearl. And Being a human sword-wielding member of the Crystal Gems had become such an important part of who she was. It’d given her confidence that she’d _never_ found at school or anywhere else, and had even pushed to communicate honestly with her _mom_, such that her relationship with her parents was better than she had ever dreamed possible…and none of that would have happened without the sword-fighting. Or, indeed, the sword itself. Which is why, she supposes, this conversation is so hard.) 

Today, they’re once again having a picnic—jam and biscuits, for something like nostalgia’s sake—and Steven looks more content than Connie’s seen him since they met. All that tension is seemingly gone from his muscles as he lounges against the washing machine and bites into a biscuit, spewing sticky jam all over his fingers. 

“So good,” he murmurs, starry-eyed, before turning to her. “This was a great idea, Connie. It’s awesome helping all the un-Corrupted Gems, but I really needed a break!”

“I’m glad. Listen…” She glances down. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“What?”

Connie sighs, then reaches into her bag for the stump that had once been Rose Quartz’s sword and gently lays it down in front of her. “I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t be! I’m just happy you’re okay! That we’re all okay!”

“Yeah, I know, but…it was your mom’s sword. You gave it to me to use, and I broke it!”

“No, you didn’t! Blue Diamond did.” He pauses. “Besides, I _gave_ it to you. And now you have another one that was custom-built for you, so it’s all good!”

“You…weren’t just letting me borrow it?”

Steven shrugs. “I guess I was at first, but I hardly ever used it unless we were Stevonnie, so after a while I just started thinking of it as yours.” He pauses. “But you have your _own_ now. Right?”

“But it was your _mom_’s.”

“That’s true. But I have a lot of stuff from her.”

“_Do_ you?” 

“Yeah! Her tapes, and Lion, and her spaceship Legs… And even though I know now that my Gem and the shield, and all my powers are _mine_, I still got them all from her. Besides, she worked really hard to build this amazing family for herself that I was just born into: Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl and my Dad—that was a gift she gave me too.” Another pause. “I guess the sword used to be really important to me back before I really knew anything about her. It was a way to feel close to her when I didn’t think I had any other way to do that. But I know _so much_ about her now…I _understand_ her…and after everything that’s happened…I guess I just don’t need it to feel close to her now.”

“So…” Connie asks tentatively. “What do you want me to do with it?”

Steven reaches for a second biscuit. “It’s up to you!”

* * *

She finds Pearl later that day, lazed on the couch in the newly refurbished Beach House. (It’s just similar enough to old Beach House to feel like it _should_ feel like home, but different enough with its new layout and empty shelves that it _doesn’t_—not yet, anyway. She doesn't even live here, but at some point, this house—well, the old house anyway—had become just as much of a home as her parents'. And to have that change...)

“Connie!” Pearl sits up in greeting. “How are you?”

“I’m doing well,” Connie responds perfunctorily as she sits down beside Pearl. “How are _you_?”

“_Good_.” She says it so emphatically that Connie can hear the weight beneath the words. It makes sense—she’s gotten to _know_ Pearl, maybe more than she’d gotten to know any of the other Gems besides Steven, and she’d pieced together the extent to which she’d always considered herself a solider. Not that that had been difficult—given that Connie’s first real introduction to her had not only been combat training, but indeed Pearl’s unwitting attempt to indoctrinate her, Connie, as a particular sort of subordinate solider. But even after all that, after Steven had intervened and Pearl had apparently begun to untangle those webs of eons-old self-esteem issues, she’d still always carried herself like she was in a warzone.

Which, Connie supposes, she was. 

But now, all the enemies are gone. Those metaphorical ones—that burden of forced secrecy, a legacy of slavery—in addition to the literal. Pearl, like Steven, can _relax_.

“So, um….” Connie produces what’s left of the sword from her bag—extends it to Pearl, but pointedly looks down as she does to avoid seeing the Gem’s reaction. “Steven said that I could decide what to do with this. And I thought that, after…you know, everything, you should have it.”

“Thank you, Connie.” Pearl grasps the remains gently, her voice soft but unwavering, firm. Firmer certainly than Connie had come to expect from her when discussing matters related to Rose or the past.

She looks up to see Pearl is gently cradling the hilt in her hands. “Steven told me a while ago, now, how much this sword meant to you. I guess it reminded you of Ro—I mean of Pink Diamond—”

“She was Rose, by then.”

“Right...Well, he mentioned how much the sword meant to you, and how important it was to you to find it. Back when he first found the scabbard, I mean.”

Pearl closes her eyes. “Yes.”

“It makes more sense now, given…” she pauses, afraid of overstepping. But understanding feels important too, so, tentatively, she presses on. “Given what you had to do with it.”

A nod. “The sword reminded me of Rose. Who she decided to be. So that she—so that _we both_—could be free. And it reminded me of…” her hands twitch out of habit, like they might jerk toward her face like Steven had described, but they don’t. “Of what _I_ did—what I was _able_ to do—to enable that.” She glances away. “Besides, after she…after she was gone, I wanted to hold on to as much of her as I could. Anything that was hers.” 

“Of _course_ you did.”

“But I…I sometimes…_neglected_ to remember…that everyone else missed her too. That, as deep as what she and I had was, as far back as it went…she was important to all of us.” She glances down. “This sword was a large part of my story. A turning point in it. But not only in mine.” 

“What do you…?”

“It was important to Steven too. And to Bismuth.” She pauses. “And to you.”

“Me?”

“Wasn’t it?”

“Well, of course, but I never…I mean, I wasn’t…” _I was never a slave! I never used the sword to shatter a paradigm that kept me imprisoned_. “It didn’t change my life!”

Pearl raises an eyebrow, smiles gently. “No?”

“Well…” Connie pictures the person she was less than two years ago, before she picked up the sword for the first time. Maybe she _had_ used the sword to shatter a paradigm that kept her imprisoned. She admits: “It sort of did. But not like it did for you!”

“Even if that’s true, and I’m not sure it is,” Pearl lays her free hand on Connie’s shoulder. “It doesn’t matter. This belongs to you too. And to Bismuth. And to Steven. And even to Garnet, Amethyst, and Greg. I think…it belongs _here_.” And she turns to gently prop it on the top living room shelf above the couch. “For all of us. In our home.”

It’s only one item, Connie thinks. On one shelf. But suddenly the whole house doesn’t feel quite as empty. (Suddenly, it feels a bit more like _home_.)

They sit in silence for a moment, then: “Pearl?” 

“Yes?”

“Do you want to spar?”

“Of course.”

They pace over to the Warp Pad, and as Pearl activates it, what’s left of the sword glimmers in the flash of light.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I love comments!


End file.
